First board meeting for new Manatee school super

Sunday

Mar 24, 2013 at 3:20 PM

By KATY BERGENkaty.bergen@heraldtribune.com

New superintendent Rick Mills will participate in his first board meeting tonight, after the School Board convenes in an afternoon workshop to discuss budget issues and the future of the district's legal department.

The workshop comes after a week in which talk of district-wide restructuring circulated widely throughout the district.

"He is realigning positions and departments," board member Julie Aranibar said last week, before directing all questions to Mills. "Our systems are broken and we need to rebuild the house."

Mills said that he had no official statement on personnel shifts on Friday, the same day he held a senior leadership meeting.

"I have not moved forward on any announcements on that publicly," Mills said.

Board members have publicly talked for months about speeding up the departure of school attorney John Bowen, who is set to retire in June. On Monday, they will continue discussions about whether they should pay more than $20,000 for an interim attorney to replace Bowen if he was to leave early. Bowen would still earn his $182,000 salary until June.

The School Board has talked before about buying out the attorney, who some say has embroiled the district in several lengthy and costly lawsuits. But they learned in 2010 that it would cost $450,000 to buy Bowen out of his contract. Some board members have spoken about outsourcing legal work to a local firm in the future.

Board members also are scheduled to address budget issues Monday.

Mills said the state of the district's reserves, depleted earlier this year after a budget deficit, will be addressed at Monday's board meeting.

The workshop is scheduled for 2 p.m.; the board meeting, for 5:45 p.m.